Unit 5

This week, I was most intrigued by the articles, Menopause is the “Old Good”: Women’s Thoughts about Reproductive Aging,” by Heather Dillaway and Like Mother, not Like Daughter: The Social Construction of Menopause and Aging, by Rebecca Utz. According to Dillaway, Menopause, like other gaining processes, has “been constructed by clinical communities and popular culture as a solely biological or physiological event and a negative period of loss.” Although, contemporary feminist research suggests that women find menopause an “inconsequential or positive experience overall” (Dillaway 398).

        In Utz’s article, mothers and their menopausal daughters were interviewed on the aging process. Utz discovered that the physiological experiences were similar in both women, but each generation had different attitudes when it came to menopause. Generally, the mothers accepted menopause as part of the aging process, where their daughters felt the need to control the physiological process. “Compared to their mothers, the daughters have greater access to health-related technology, received more education and possess a greater overall awareness of their bodies (Utz 152). All of this makes perfect sense. Contemporary society puts pressure on everybody to stay young, because “beauty” as defined by society, is young.  The younger generation has had more access to technology and information that slows the aging process. It only makes sense that menopause would be bothersome, as it is a natural aging process that they cannot control.

        After reading through the experiences and thoughts of the women in each article, I was curious how my own mother felt about menopause and aging. So, I asked her. The conversation I had with my mother was a great supplement to this week’s readings. She said that women are finally catching on to the fact that menopause can open you up to the best time in your life. “Oh, I could talk about this for hours,” she said. I had opened up a can of worms. “I have a confidence that I didn’t have as a young women, I have found my voice and my inner strength. It’s really an opportunity and a time for women to get reconnected with her deepest self and a time to rediscover passions.” My mother added that today, there are more options to combat the physical challenges that menopause once brought, such as bio identical hormones. These options help women move more gently through the process. All in all, there’s never been a better time to be a menopausal woman in the history of the world! In a final word, my mother explained the new-found freedom menopause has brought. “I actually tell a joke that estrogen was never really a friend of mine. It was such a blessed freedom to be free of those mood swings, free of PMS. In many ways, I felt free from my cycle - that is when I opened up to being a writer and an artist, it was a second blossoming.”

        This conversation certainly opened my eyes to something that I have not yet even considered. The way I see it, menopause does not sound like a loss. In fact, it sounds beautiful. What we lose in the aging process in society’s definition for physical beauty, we gain in confidence, passion and freedom. If embraced, it is a time in which the ego is shattered and women blossom. Menopause? Sign me up!